Raphael Girard (October 30, 1898, in Martigny, Switzerland – December 25, 1982, in Guatemala City) was an Maya ethnographer who specializes at Mesoamerican tribes culture and traditions.

He and his wife, Rebeca Carrión Cachot moved to Guatemala city in 1955[4] so to research what subsequently became the book "Esotericism of the Popol Vuh".

In 1918 he joined the Swiss army 4th Company, XII Battalion mountain infantry,[4] On January 10, 1919, with the support of Eugene Pittard of Geneva University, he joined the Society of History and Geography of Paris.

[4] Fellow anthropologist pioneers, Esteban Guardiola, Luis Land, Félix Salgado, Pedro Rivas, Jesús Aguilar and Rebeca Carrión Cachot which he married in December 1955,[4] founded the Honduran Society of History and Geography.

He then completed ethnographic works about the Hicaques, Mayans Payas, Caribss, Miskitos, and Susmus.